Sorry. That headline may have been a bit dramatic. But see, I turn 40 in July. And while I’m generally cool with that — and while I am, in all honestly, in The Best Shape of My Life — it has dawned on me pretty clearly that we are almost to the point where there are NO MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS OLDER THAN ME. This is sobering.

I’m thinking about this because just this afternoon Miguel Batista was released. Just yesterday Derek Lowe was DFA’d. Mariano Rivera will retire after the season is over. Those are three of the very small handful of players left who were born before July 14, 1973. And while it doesn’t mean a heck of a lot when you think hard about it, it’s kinda sobering when you think casually about it. Athletes have always, in my mind anyway, been older than me. I know that that has mostly not been true for many years now, but soon that will almost be 100% not the case.

The Oakland Athletics ballpark saga has dragged on for years and years and years. They’ve considered San Jose, Fremont and at least three locations in Oakland as potential new ballpark sites. The whole process has lasted almost as long as the Braves and Rangers played in their old parks before building new ones.

In the past several months the Athletics’ “stay in Oakland” plan has gained momentum. At one point the club thought it had an agreement to build a new place near Peralta/Laney College in downtown Oakland. There have been hiccups with that, so two other sites — Howard Terminal, favored by city officials — and the current Oakland Coliseum site have remained in play. There are pros and cons to each of these sites, as we have discussed in the past.

One consideration not mentioned before was mentioned by team president David Kaval yesterday: sea level rise due to climate change. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Kaval mentioned twice that the Howard Terminal site would have to take into account sea-level rise and transportation concerns — and he said there have been conversations with the city and county and the Joint Powers Authority about developing the Coliseum site.

The Howard Terminal/Jack London Square area of Oakland has been identified as susceptible to dramatically increased flooding as a result of projected sea level rise due to climate change. On the other side of the bay both the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors have had to consider sea level rise in their stadium/arena development plans. Now it’s the Athletics’ turn.

Fifteen of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams play in coastal areas and another five of them play near the Great Lakes. While some of our politicians don’t seem terribly concerned about it all, people and organizations who will have skin the game 10, 20 and 50 years from now, like the Oakland Athletics, are taking it into account.